4 Iranian Students at Umass Dartmouth Struggle as Trump Presidential Proclamations Freeze Visas

(DARTMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS) — Iranian graduate students at UMass Dartmouth are confronting an immigration crisis after the Trump administration suspended visa issuance for Iranian nationals and froze the adjudication of some immigration benefits, including work authorization tied to post-graduation employment.

The action has left several students nearing graduation in May 2026 unable to secure approval for Optional Practical Training, or OPT, the program many international students rely on to remain in the United States and work after finishing their degrees.

Matthew J. Tragesser, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, confirmed in an email statement on April 1, 2026 that OPT applications for Iranian nationals are barred under the administration’s current approach. “The Trump administration is reviewing every immigration benefit to protect American jobs. [OPT] allows foreign students to secure long-term employment in the U.S., undermining qualified American workers.”

At UMass Dartmouth, the disruption has hit Iranian students in graduate programs, including Master of Fine Arts students whose work centers on political dissent. Some now face the prospect of finishing their studies without a legal route to stay and work in the country.

The administration’s policy rests on a series of Presidential Proclamations and agency directives issued over the past year. Presidential Proclamation 10949, dated June 4, 2025, established a travel ban on 19 countries, citing national security and public safety threats.

That framework widened under Presidential Proclamation 10998, which took effect January 1, 2026 and expanded the list of restricted nations to 39. The measure fully suspended visa issuance for nationals of 19 countries, including Iran.

The Department of State described that step in a News Alert dated February 2, 2026. “Effective January 1, 2026. the Department of State fully suspended visa issuance to nationals of 19 countries—[including] Iran. We are protecting our nation and its citizens by using rigorous, security-focused screening and vetting procedures.”

A separate USCIS policy memorandum dated December 2, 2025 directed agency personnel to stop moving forward on pending requests involving people from countries listed in PP 10949. The memo, PM-602-0192, instructed officers to “Place a hold on pending benefit requests for aliens from countries listed in Presidential Proclamation (PP) 10949. pending a comprehensive review, regardless of entry date.”

Another agency action deepened the impact on students already in the United States. Memo PM-602-0194 imposed what the government describes as an “adjudicative hold” on OPT and STEM OPT approvals for affected nationals, effectively freezing applications even for students who are already enrolled and nearing graduation.

That distinction marks a broader change from the 2017 Muslim Ban. While that earlier policy eventually allowed some student visa exemptions, the 2026 measures added an adjudication freeze on work authorizations, extending the effects beyond border entry and visa issuance.

For international graduate students, OPT functions as a required final step rather than a marginal benefit. Without it, they must leave the United States within 30 to 60 days of their program end date.

That timeline has turned a policy change in Washington into an immediate deadline for students in Dartmouth. Those expecting to graduate in May 2026 now face a compressed window in which their work authorization remains frozen and their ability to stay lawfully after graduation is in doubt.

Students identified as “Sarah,” “Ali,” and “Sofly” have emerged as examples of that bind. Their names were withheld in reports, and each has used time at UMass Dartmouth to produce art criticizing repression by the Iranian government.

Because that work is now public, they fear imprisonment or execution if they are forced to return to Iran. Students in the MFA program are the group most acutely affected.

Their concerns extend beyond personal safety. The students have spent years and thousands of dollars on tuition and visa fees, only to face a graduation date that may arrive before their immigration cases move at all.

That has also created a professional dead end. With OPT applications frozen, they are unable to accept job offers or secure legal status after completing their degrees.

The result is a group of students who can finish degrees but cannot count on the pathway that usually follows them. In practice, they are stranded between graduation and departure, with no clear resolution laid out in the government actions cited.

UMass schools have faced disputes involving Iranian students before. In 2015, UMass Amherst briefly barred Iranian students from certain engineering programs in an effort to comply with the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act, or ITRSHRA, before reversing the decision after public outcry.

That earlier episode centered on access to academic programs. The present dispute reaches further, touching travel, visa issuance and employment authorization at the end of a degree program.

The federal measures also operate on more than one level at once. One set of restrictions blocks visa issuance abroad, while another places pending immigration benefits on hold inside the United States.

For students from Iran at UMass Dartmouth, that means the problem is not limited to getting a new visa stamp. Even those already studying in the country can see post-graduation work requests stalled indefinitely.

USCIS and the State Department have both framed the steps as part of a broader security and labor review. Tragesser’s statement tied the OPT restrictions to protecting jobs for American workers, while the State Department cast the visa suspensions as part of “rigorous, security-focused screening and vetting procedures.”

Those explanations have done little to ease the predicament for students on campus. A graduate student who expected to move from school to legal employment now faces a system in which neither departure nor continuation offers certainty.

The timing has sharpened the strain. Graduation in May 2026 leaves little room for delays, and the adjudication pause described in PM-602-0194 means students cannot rely on the normal sequence of filing for OPT and waiting for approval.

The administration’s use of Presidential Proclamations has given the policy broad reach. PP 10949 created the initial travel ban architecture, and PP 10998 enlarged it, extending restrictions to 39 nations while fully suspending visa issuance for 19 of them, including Iran.

Agency memoranda then translated those proclamations into case-processing instructions. PM-602-0192 ordered officers to place holds on pending benefit requests, and PM-602-0194 extended the effect to OPT and STEM OPT adjudications for affected nationals.

Taken together, those measures have transformed what might otherwise have been a temporary travel barrier into a wider immigration freeze for some students. Entry, visa issuance and work authorization are no longer separate questions.

That overlap matters most for graduate students at the point of transition from school to employment. OPT is the legal bridge many use to stay in the United States after completing a degree, and without it the period between graduation and departure can close fast.

At UMass Dartmouth, the impact has landed hardest on students whose artistic work has made return feel dangerous. Their projects, centered on political dissent, became part of their academic lives in Massachusetts and part of the risk they now weigh if forced back to Iran.

The students’ dilemma also reflects the financial stakes built into international study. Years of tuition payments and visa costs have produced degrees that may not carry the chance of work experience usually expected at the end of a U.S. graduate program.

Official information on the policy remains spread across several agencies. The State Department’s visa restrictions appear at travel.state.gov, USCIS policy memoranda are posted through USCIS policy memoranda, and the White House has published the relevant Presidential Proclamations.

For now, the students at UMass Dartmouth remain caught between those directives and the academic calendar. As May 2026 approaches, the combination of visa suspensions and frozen OPT adjudications has left them facing the end of their programs without the post-graduation path they had expected.